With a little over two-weeks until AEW All In, "Dynamite"stopped in Las Vegas, NV for a jam-packed edition of the flagship program. You can read all about the title defenses, tournament matches, and other goings-on over on the AEW Dynamite 8/12/2026 Results Page.As for now, it's time for the Wrestling Inc. Staff to vent their frustrations and sing their praises. With 2 hours and 20 minutes of action, there was plenty to love, and plenty to hate. Dizzying highs, like main event fight between Jack Perry and AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley, and there were perilous lows, like whatever the hell was going on with putting Jericho in a title match. You can make your own thoughts known in the comments section, which will be open, as always.Without further ado, here's the best and the worst from AEW's trip to The Palms in Las Vegas.
Any pro wrestling fan will know that sometimes it's really easy to tell when a company has no idea what two stars are feuding with one another over other than knowing they want to run a match between them. I can't help but get the feeling that may be what's happening in the build-up to the AEW World Championship match between Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay.The opening segment from this edition of "Dynamite" felt so incredibly discoordinated to me to the point where I found it hard to follow because I had no idea what anybody was saying, why certain people like Don Callis were involved in this one, and what was even going on at all. It started with Ospreay talking about how his granddad inspired him, and then Callis appeared for some reason to talk about his relationship with Omega as a distraction for Don Callis Family members to attack Ospreay, only for Omega to then come to Ospreay's aid and tell him that was the last time he helped him. I had a really hard time seeing the through line or connection between all of this, and it felt like it was about four different segments crammed into one in the absolute worst way possible.Written by Olivia Quinlan
It really was a question of where MJF would sit on the All In card, rather than whether he would be on it. But this week's show answered that question with a fun three-way match pitting the former and self-proclaimed true AEW World Champion against "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Nick Wayne.This was a match that went a long way to spotlighting the ever-impressive "Speedball" and promising "Prodigy" with someone in the upper echelon. Of course, MJF eventually got the win and will now be opposite Andrade to kick off the Casino Gauntlet at Wembley Stadium. So the match did exactly what it set out to do, putting two more presumed participants over even in defeat, furthering MJF's own arc as the champion of delusion, and giving his feud with Andrade over the World title an outlet on a large stage.He worked smarter rather than harder, and that was always going to be fine with two very hard workers sharing the ring with him. Therefore, allowing Bailey and Wayne to work the match with something, as he gently guided them. Theirs would be a battle of attrition and who could do the most before giving out, while MJF made his one of subterfuge and picking the opportune moment.That fed into the finish as Bailey had the match won, hitting the Ultima Weapon before MJF cast him from the ring and got the win via submission from Wayne. Bailey just misses out yet again. Wayne gets another repetition in against top-tier opponents. MJF goes on as one would have likely guessed he would.At the very least, it worked as an advertisement for the Casino Gauntlet if this is what is to be expected.Written by Max Everett
I'm quite tired of AEW starting the main event of "Dynamite" right at 10 p.m. when the show is meant to be ending. A little overrun here and there is fine, but a full match after the show is supposed to wrap is a little egregious. There were a few matches tonight I thought could have been cut, or at least shortened for time, and one of them was Kevin Knight's rather meaningless TNT Championship defense over Chris Jericho.It took me a while to even remember what commentary was referring to when they mentioned "the events of last week" when it came to Jericho getting a TNT title match. At Grand Slam: Mexico, he hit Knight with the Judas Effect to set up the sequence for his trio, with Jericho fighting alongside Darby Allin and Mistico, to win the match against the Don Callis Family. Sure, Jericho also got the victory over Tommaso Ciampa at Redemption, but he hasn't exactly done much else to warrant a title opportunity. I really don't think anyone was begging to see this tonight, on a show with two Continental Challenge Cup bouts, matches that were going to be good and interesting no matter what.It's also been pretty obvious that Knight was destined for a big bout at All In, and tonight, it was revealed he'll be battling Darby Allin in a Falls Count Anywhere match, making his defense against Jericho feel even more pointless. Speaking of Ciampa, I was certain he was going to get involved after losing to Jericho's "Painmaker," as they're tied at one win each. Maybe, and hopefully, that feud is actually wrapped up despite what I assumed would be the need for a rubber match. Instead, it was Don Callis to get involved at ringside, which at least thankfully led to the end of the match and Knight retaining.Jericho vs. Knight wasn't something AEW fans needed on the road to All In, with just two episodes of "Dynamite" left after tonight. The build to the big show hasn't been as hot as I expected, and when the entire show feels more focused on the Continental Challenge Cup, there need to be some more matches, or even just segments, at least, to strengthen stories and feuds going into Wembley Stadium. As good as Knight is, this was a forgettable match.Written by Daisy Ruth
For a company that is all about the wrestling, the August 12 episode of "AEW Dynamite" sure had a lot of talking on it. That isn't a problem, far from it, but by the time we got to the main event, we hadn't really seen a match that left us with that feeling of "Ahhhh yes, that's what I expect from this company, a great match." So who better to leave us with that feeling than the ace of the company himself (he is the ace, guys, just admit it), Jon Moxley?Moxley's match with "Jungle" Jack Perry was a first-round match in the AEW Continental Challenge Cup, which Excalibur kept calling the C3 on commentary, so I'm assuming the C4 will just be a redo of the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match from five years ago until the company gets it right. Moxley and Perry had never wrestled each other outside of tag team matches, which sounded strange originally considering both guys have been with the company since day one. But it must be said that it was worth the wait.This was your classic David vs. Goliath story, and when Moxley gets to play that vicious bully to the point of looking absolutely monstrous, he fires on all cylinders. We saw it against the likes of Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin, and even Wheeler Yuta back in the day, and Perry played the role of David excellently here. Perry can be a bit hit or miss for me at times, leaning too far into the spotty parts of wrestling that lose people because it's a moment of "Well, that was clearly practiced like eight times before the show," but he was frantic in this match. He knew the task at hand, and once he saw red, all those dives and big moves made sense in the context of the match. He knew he had to use his own body as a weapon to even get a chance of winning.After almost being stopped by the referee, the finish was great. Moxley clearly thought he had done enough, only for this young guy, battered and bloody, to have the energy to be defiant one last time. Perry was empty at this point, and deep down, he knew he was done, but it was always worth trying to fire up when in the Rear Naked Choke. However, that last primal scream he let out was all the energy he had, and Moxley advances to the next round.Easily the match of the night for me, and a pairing I didn't know I needed in Moxley and Perry. But now, I want to see the rematch.Written by Sam Palmer.
AEW All In London 2026 is rapidly approaching, and the card is slowly but surely taking its final form. Virtually all of the biggest names in the company are involved in some capacity, but judging by the state of the AEW TBS Championship picture right now, that title won't be making it to Wembley Stadium, and in all honesty, it's not really a surprise.We covered the train wreck that was Kris Statlander vs. Persephone in last week's edition of this piece, and it did sort of take an upswing on the August 12 episode of "AEW Dynamite" as Statlander defeated Viva Van, while Maya World and Thunder Rosa defeated Persephone and Hikaru Shida in tag team action. All of this was designed to build up a huge four-way match for next week's show between Maya, Statlander, Shida, and Persephone for Maya's TBS Title, and right there, the nail in the coffin of that title's chances of making it to the English capital died on the spot.To be honest, the entire TBS Title picture has been all over the place since Willow Nightingale got injured, and considering that she was always going to be involved in the AEW Women's World Championship match at All In, there's every chance she was still going to be TBS Champion by that point as well. What this has led to is the title just sort of floating around with no real reason to exist sadly, and while Maya's victory at AEW Redemption 2026 was a feel-good moment, what has actually been achieved so far?The whole feud is largely around Statlander and Persephone. Then Shida sometimes gets involved, with a little dash of Thunder Rosa because she is nearly feuding with Persephone but not quite, because the two titles they both hold in CMLL don't usually lead to the two people holding them actually facing each other. The champion is effectively an afterthought in all of this, and the fact that she publicly said after she won the title, "I think me and Athena have unfinished business," WHERE IS ATHENA IN ANY OF THIS?We try, guys, we really do try to not sound like a bunch of broken records when it comes to the state of the AEW women's division, but you can see our frustrations here, surely? Like the big title match that has been built up for weeks with all the enthusiasm of the color beige was announced for a random "Dynamite" by Mick Foley...good grief. There's still time to salvage things, but it's not looking good, and at this point, not even a women's Casino Gauntlet Match can make up for the booking of this division.Written by Sam Palmer
When I read the report that Swerve Strickland could possibly make his return tonight, I was really looking forward to it, but I was slightly apprehensive. He's been my favorite in AEW for a while, but he hasn't exactly had the best 2026. I wasn't sure what direction creative was going to take him in for AEW All In, but after his appearance tonight amongst the trios division, I am absolutely intrigued.I was not on board with Brodido and "Hangman" Adam Page taking the AEW World Trios Championships off The Demand's Ricochet, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun last week, just seven days after the heels won the gold. Now, I think I see the vision, though my vision very well may be a lot of my own fantasy booking. During their victory celebration, Page had just asked the crowd, in meme form, which I loved, if they minded if a "white boy speak a little Espaol," when Strickland's music hit.While it made sense initially, his promo really helped bring everything together. He said that Brody King, Bandido, and Page seem "trauma bonded," since they're all guys he's had problems with in recent years. He went a step further to say that everything always seems to come back to "Hangman" for him, which I appreciated.They were then interrupted by The Demand, and I usually don't love a series of interrupting promos, but this worked well. Of course, Ricochet is furious that they lost the gold, and they want their rematch. He said Liona's shoulders weren't down for the entire three-count, which I don't necessarily believe, but it works for a chicken s*** heel like Ricochet. He then directed his attention and Strickland and said that, in addition to needing to be in a trio to get involved, Strickland wasn't safe out there, as there were nine guys (as The Demand were accompanied by the Lethal Twist) who hate him, staring him down.Strickland got to stepping, like Ricochet told him to, and got in a quip about King being the one who barks, but Ricochet's the b****, which pretty much ended the segment. Overall, I really loved this return because, as I mentioned with fantasy booking, it adds a lot of intrigue. If this is going to be a multi-team trios match at All In, Strickland needs two partners, and there are two huge free agents out there: Kofi and Austin Creed, who currently aren't rumored to be involved in the AEW World Tag Team Championship picture like some fans thought they may be. Strickland's direction and the rumor mill are going to be super interesting in the coming weeks, and I'm excited for all of it.Written by Daisy Ruth
